Abstract: Multiple competing demands jockey for our attention in organizational life. How managers respond to these tensions is fundamental to an organization’s fate. Psychologists have long advocated the cognitive nature of paradoxes. We advocate that Kelly’s (1955) philosophy of Constructive Alternativism holds great promise in getting managers to think more deeply about opposing tensions confronting their everyday strategic practice. In contributing to the paradox literature, we argue that Kelly’s bi-polarity of construing extends beyond (complex, not simple) “either/or” thinking to a much higher level “and/both” thinking. Using a pilot study with a senior executive, we demonstrate how a modified repertory grid questionnaire captures paradoxical thinking. In so doing, we provide an alternative approach to better understanding how strategy practitioners make sense of their everyday strategic tensions.

Abstract: Through a French case study, this research aims at analyzing paradoxical tensions in inter-organizational strategies responding to the goal of creating a joint innovation. We proposed a reading grid to put in evidence all multiple paradoxical tensions that drive organizational change in the context of an innovative merger. We differentiated three levels of perception of paradoxical tensions: strategic intent, structure of the relationship, and partner relationships. We suggested that actors were able to establish a dynamic equilibrium because of the development of technological innovation.

Abstract: How do people in organizations imagine new business opportunities? Based on a sample of ten cases we explore imagination in strategy creation as a purposive process of moving between everyday work experience and new business possibilities. Three interrelated key features of purposive imagination are outlined and exemplified: Strategic experimentations take place both in core and marginal activities. Threshold experiences are events of discovery and mastery that radically open up and/or strengthen new development. Knowledge vectors are emergent or deliberate growth trajectories extended from current business in pursuit of organic growth. Purposive imagination is rooted in practice, takes a narrative, temporal and dialogical character, and often carries identity questions: who are we in light of what we want to do and become?

Abstract: This paper explores the origin and evolution of organizational innovative capabilities. Using a longitudinal, embedded case study, we analyze how the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) develops and advances its capability over time in line with a series of technology development projects from the 1970s to early 2010s. We emphasize that capability development hinges on the way organizations utilize their pre-existing capabilities and continually expand their capability path from the interaction with technology in context. The former speaks to the need for learning from experience, characterized by exploitation and improvisation, whereas the latter connotes the significance of learning through interaction, typified by exploration and leverage. We also indicate the significance of R&D investments in enabling organizations to manage the tension between experiential and interactive learning.